Missed this earlier, but I spotted on ValveNews that Jenni from Valve sent a response to I.Am-Half-Life about Randy's posts about problems with the patch (story):

• The last time I checked we had 950 HL servers running, and expect that number to go up as the day progresses. (At our high point we had gone from 0 to 1000 servers in less than 24 hours, which makes us very happy. :-))
• We're sorry that the update overwrites any existing TFC autoexec.cfg file. We didn't anticipate that this would be such a big problem for people, and next time we'll make sure the update creates a back-up.
• The reason demos recorded under previous versions of HL don't work now is that we had to make a trade-off to address the fact that a lot of people using cable modems weren't able to play the game. (To fix their problem we had to make a change to the network protocol.)
• All of the Half-Life mods are working with the update. (We posted 8 mods to our mod server yesterday.)

Right on the heels of our late report earlier of a new beta of Q3Stats (story) comes another version, this one actually brand new, and now available on their newly relocated homepage. New to beta 2 of version 2 is the program's new name (it was formerly Q3TStats), a native Linux version, more commandline options, more parser enhancements, the score formula has been adjusted, and a bug has been squashed.

Billy has posted a new screenshot from Nocturne on Voodoo Extreme showing off gameplay from TRI's upcoming third person gothic thriller.

Power Gamerz interviews Viet-Tam Luu talking with this software engineer from NVIDIA talking about accelerator features, including some discussion of the t-buffer, as well as other stuff about the business, game playing, and more.

Part 2 of the Kingpin Mapping Guide is up on IPlayGames covering "Expanding Your Map."

Though not on Team Evolve's Red Odyssey page there's a version 1.3 patch for the Red Odyssey add-on for BattleZone on the irrepressible Sgt. Hulka's Bootcamp. The new release is described as a "Major fix, no more BD invisible tanks!!!"

Version 3.04 of the WinGate Win32 proxy dealie is now available. Thanks BetaNews.

3D Accelerated Gaming interviews Laurant Weill of Visiware Studios about their upcoming Fox Interactive game, Planet of the Apes. The piece discusses gameplay for the game (expected second Quarter 2000), and offers some screenshots.

Speaking of planets, Billy at VE sends word that Planet Iridium build #99 is now available, updating this massive multiplayer Internet space simulation, currently undergoing free beta testing throughout the summer.

Saw on PlanetUnreal (by way of Unreal Nation) that GT has posted a new UT level of the week called CTF November, along with some new screenshots.

BWwire Interviews Steve Jackson talking with the writer on Lionhead's upcoming god-game Black & White.

I noticed an interesting post to the Quake Arena Road Tour messageboard by Savage Lucy titled road bus review that gives a neat rundown on what's up with the version of Quake III Arena being played on the bus. I'm guessing loonyboi will have more to say about this after he catches up with the tour (which will happen sometime this evening, though I'm not sure when we'll first hear from him), but the portion of the post about the game seemed well worth passing long here as it mentions new features that us users of the public test have not seen yet:

Just got back from stopping by the Quake III bus in Houston and I must say, what a trip! The new level that I played on is very cool, it is somewhat similar in style to Qtest 1. The grenade launcher is included in the level but I did not find it very useful, I mainly stuck with the plasma gun (it was very refreshing to have a ping less than 350!).

There was a quad-damage included, along with an invisibility rune which seemed alternate with the quad as far as which one would spawn. When invisible, nothing at all (not even eyes) can be seen. It was great to walk up to people and melt the crap out of them!

There are several new models included. There are of course the two that are included with the later test version but in addition to this, there is what appears to be a female version of the marine but without the visor, and the coolest model there was essentially a giant eye with legs. It was truly hilarious to see a whole bunch of eyes walking around holding rocket launchers and plasma guns!!

A couple of updates from earlier in the week to Q3Test log parsing programs, both spotted on Beta Bites. First, Q3TStats 2.0 beta 1a, is a a fix to the beta 1 of Q3TStats, a Q3Test version 1.08-compatible log parser. Also, Q3dmstats version 0.45 has been released, offering bugfixes and improved output.

Saw on the Descent Chronicles has posted word on a Descent 3 FAQ on Jamie's Sweet Home Page has posted a Descent 3 Skinning FAQ (zipped--direct link--oddly there doesn't seem to be a link to this on it's own site) by Biggyshake intended on helping those interested in skinning in D3 get underway.

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted a bunch of screenshots from Tomb Raider IV, the upcoming next installment in the third-person adventure franchise. Also, for your Lara tracking pleasure, there are More Tomb Raider Movie Details on GA-Source which describe the plot of this upcoming Merchant-Ivory (just kidding) production, and mongers a few rumors over possible casting decisions.

The Creative Labs' Downloads page has new 3DBlaster Banshee Windows 95/98 and 3DBlaster Banshee Windows NT drivers for their Voodoo Banshee-based boards (you may be amused to note that the page misspells the name of their card as "Basnhee"). Thanks BetaNews. The new Win95/98 drivers offer support for AMD's 3DNow!, improved control for memory clock setting, and allows proper installation with plug & play monitors. The WinNT drivers correct reported cases of Internet Explorer (Versions 4 & 5) freezing up on certain websites (if you do not have that problem, or if you are using another browser, you do not need these drivers).

Drakan.Net has a tip for SoundBlaster Live! owners that are having trouble with Psygnosis/Surreal's just-released Drakan: Order of the Flame to make sure that have the latest Creative's Live(!)Ware 2.1 update. They also have word of problems with that nasty DirectPlay API that are causing difficulties on multiplayer servers when too many players join that should be addressed by a future patch. Here's the word from Stu at Surreal on what's up with Drakan multiplayer (thanks again Drakan.Net):

1. Until the Winsock patch is released, we recommend keeping the max number of players at 4. That seems to be the most players that DirectPlay can handle, no matter how much bandwidth Drakan is using.
2. We recommend setting the server connection speed in the Drakan.cfg file to "Modem56" This is the default speed, and produces pretty good player movement at this rate.
3. Server operators should create a file called "ServerRules.txt" and place it in their Drakan root directory. The file should contain e-mail contact information so Surreal can contact them with problems or solutions. Surreal is monitoring most of the current servers.
4. DirectPlay only allows one server per machine to be run. This is a limitation of DirectPlay, not Drakan, and therefore this issue will be resolved by the Drakan Winsock patch.

Version 2.0 of TriCon the console administration utility for Starsiege TRIBES, is now available. New to this version are a bunch of features like the ability to minimize to system tray, a User List Function to automatically auto-admin, superadmin, ban/kick, nick reserving, and more.

There are a pair of new TRIBES Extreme Screenshots on GA-Source showing off TRIBES Extreme, the upcoming sequel to Starsiege TRIBES that promises a single-player campaign, in addition to enhancements to the game's multiplayer capabilities.

Randy from I.Am-Half-Life sends word that he's updated his tweaks page with a new version of his benchmarking demo that works under Half-Life 1.0.1.3 (the new release does not work with demos recorded under older versions.

• Saw on BetaNews that they've dug up some new drivers for the Diamond Multimedia Stealth III S500.
• NT Game Palace has posted some updated INF files from Anthony Toste to use 3dfx-based graphic cards under Windows 2000 (now with new readme and installation instructions).

Computer Games Online's Q&A With Sierra's Rod Fung talks with the producer of SWAT 3 Close Quarters Battle about gameplay in this tactical shooter currently in the works. The next part (currently being slowly and lovingly HTML-ed as if by monks of yore), is promised soon, covering Multiplayer and AI issues.

Unreal Kingdom has a reply from Tim Sweeney to their question about running single player Unreal maps on Unreal Tournament (thanks PlanetUnreal).

UT will ship with all the Unreal 1 sounds, textures, and models, so the maps *might* work. We haven't been testing the Unreal 1 game code in the UT codebase for months now, so I can't promise that certain aspects of the gameplay haven't broken, but at least everything compiles and seems to work at a glance. So I expect a lot of the U1 single player user maps will work with UT right away, and if some break, they can probably be modified to work.

Extreme Hardware has more information gleaned from various sources around the Internet about the swirling rumors of Hercules' demise (story). The report quotes Riva Extreme's coverage of the topic, an "unverified" USENET post, and an email confirmation from someone at Hercules. Also, The Adrenaline Vault News has a report up on the subject.

Intel slashing chip prices Monday is a ZDNN article detailing deep slashes from the chip giant in wholesale quantities of Pentium II and Pentium III processors. Only the price of the top-of-the-line 600 MHz Pentium III will remain unaffected by the cuts, which drop the prices of some CPUs as much as 41%. Thanks emperor_jeremy.

Sean Segel sent along a report he wrote up from a foray to Hercules' corporate headquarters, with what would appear to be proof that they are out of business. Expect a formal announcement next week, but until then, here's what Sean had to say:

I Just got back from Hercules of Fremont California. I was just informed by the staff that Hercules is indeed "out of business". The anonymous employees told me that they site financial woes as the main reason why Hercules can no longer continue. The staff also informed me that the employees have not been paid for two weeks. The reason that they do not answer the phones is because they are working for free and are basically clearing their desk out. It will be clear very soon when Hercules issues their press release regarding their departure from the graphics business.

Hercules will also be calling the game sites with additional statements. The staff also said that its unlikely that they will be fulfilling any more video card orders, even the ones that have been ordered weeks ago. They did say that there was some employees(out of charity) still there packing up some cards for shipment. So if your credit card was not charged, then you should not be receiving a video card. I was able to get what is probably one of the last new Hercules TNT2 Ultras that will be seen again. They sold me the Hercules TNT2 Ultra /TV-out with dvd software for a discount price of $200. They said that if you are lucky enough to live in the Fremont area, able to arrive at Hercules Co. with the next days before they clear out, that you could also get the Hercules TNT2 Ultra/ TV-out with dvd software for the discount price of $200.

Just as I was about to print this, Maximum PC posted their report on the subject, with an "anonymous source" confirming that the company has indeed closed down, with all products no longer being shipped, and almost all employees having resigned.

Extreme3D has posted an article called "The History of Q3Test" which illustrates the evolution of Q3Test from version to version.

Version 1.7 of Cold Ice, a deathmatch mod for Half-Life has been released (thanks PlanetHalfLife). This version adds several new weapons (including a grappling hook), a Kamikaze Dynamite Vest, two new maps, and more.

Version 1.41 beta of the texture editing program Wally has been released. This version boasts many new enhancements over its predecessor, including browsable image types and palette files, caching for faster directory browsing, and lots more.

According to the fan page XCommand, when E-Mail X-Com is released in early October, it will contain a preview movie for X-Com: Alliance, the Unreal engine title in the series, on the CD. Thanks to UnrealEngine.com for pointing that out.

GASource has posted four new screenshots they received from KaosKontrol, showing off their urban 3D strategy game Block War.

• Next-Generation reviews (glowingly!) Drakan: Order of the Flame.
• 3DActionPlanet reviews System Shock 2.
• GamePen reviews System Shock 2.

• Mike Wilson updated his .plan with great excitement over the fact that both FLY! and Darkstone are selling extremely well for the PC, with Railroad Tycoon II selling well on the Mac.
• The Ministry of Development has posted an interview with with Damian Scott of Kanonball, a Half-Life mod.
• IMG Magazine is offering a free subscription to anyone who donates $40 to the Red Cross' Turkey International Response Fund. Just donate (be sure to select "Turkey" as the country of choice) and copy/paste the confirmation mail (without the CC information) into a letter to tuncer@imgmagazine.com along with your mailing info.

• GameSpot reviews the TurboWriter CD-RW.
• GamePC has posted a Quantum Atlas 10K vs. Seagate Cheetah 18LP shootout, comparing these two hard drives.
• Maximum Hardware reviews the Diamond Viper 770 TNT2 Ultra.

Okay, it's time for a Moronic loonyboi Story™. Whee. Yeah, I did something very stupid. I have this habit of keeping things inside my Palm Pilot case. Stuff like checks, prescriptions, etc. So yesterday during my foray into the city, I was depositing a whole boatload of checks, and well...I left my Pilot at the bank. Since the bank closed before I made it home, and I had left it in the part that was open 24 hours, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out that it's gone forever. Doh. The only upside to this whole thing is that it's forced me to upgrade from a Palm Professional to the swanky IIIx (Blue has a Palm V, but I just couldn't justify spending the extra cash for less RAM) but I still feel like a complete twit. I also took the opportunity to pick up Tiger Woods' PGA Tour Golf for the Palm Pilot. Damn, that looks good. Someone want to explain why golf the sport bores the heck out of me, but I can't get enough of golf games? Strange, strange, strange.

Link of the Day: Dog Shoots Master. It's one of those news stories you sort of wish were made up (thanks James Boswell).

GameCenter has posted a preview of Sierra's upcoming tactical shooter SWAT 3 (thanks VE). The preview contains a number of images which show off the game, and one can spot a definite Rainbow Six influence in them.

SinEd Omega, a new version of SinEd based on the source code, has been released and is available for download at the Sincest site. This new version adds a 2015 texture submenu, so all the mission pack textures show up separately, a command prompt option for easy access to the map directory, as well as several other enhancements and fixes.

GamePen has posted an interview with Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford, with Geoff Keighley asking intelligent questions about their upcoming official Half-Life add-on Oposing Force. Here's an excerpt with some info about the NPC interaction in the game:

Patrick, our programmer, has spent a good deal of time making the squad combat very fun in OpFor. The first big difference you’ll notice is that instead of just two NPC’s being able to follow the player, Cpl. Shephard can gather a whole squad together and bring them into action. Sometimes you’ll be able to talk to other soldiers over the radios you find scattered around the base and work out how to link up with them. Other times, you’ll come across a fight in progress and can jump in to help your team. We spent some time improving the AI so that the new larger squad of soldiers can act more intelligently. I hope that our programmers can spend even more time with it before release to make them even better at working as a group and avoiding damaging the player and each other.

Version 0.4a build 3 of wHeretic, a Win32 port of Heretic has been released (thanks Billy "hermetic" Wilson). This version adds new config file options, fixes issues with the MIDI code, and has a bunch of other new optimizations and fixes. To show off the new code, there are some benchmarks showing its improvements over previous versions posted on the wHeretic home page.

PCGamer Online has posted a preview of Sinistar: Unleashed, the 3D remake of the 1983 arcade space shooting classic, complete with a handful of new screenshots.

The Official System Shock 2 site has been updated, and the FAQ now features questions related to the upcoming patch as well as answers to common tech support issues. Here are the details we received regarding the upcoming patch from Irrational Games' Ken Levine, just so you know what to expect:

The primary issue to be addressed in the patch is the addition of multiplayer capabilities. The patched game will support 4 player co-operative multiplay. The patch will also include several bug fixes to problems that have become apparent since the game shipped.

In response to requests, the patch will enable some new configuration variables which will allow you to adjust gameplay elements such as weapon degradation and monster respawning. These gameplay adjustments are not recommended or supported by Irrational Games, Looking Glass Studios or Electronic Arts.

The patch is currently in final testing. It will be released as soon as we have finished the verification process.

Saw on Datumplane::Starsiege that the official TRIBES Extreme Development page is up on The Tribes Players Page, where they have also posted a "Would You Enter A Renegades League/Ladder" poll on their screenshots page.

There is now a new version 0.3 of The Jumbot for Half-Life. In the new release, bots have full use of ladders, some bugs are squashed, and the bots perform better with waypoints under water.

Freespace2.org has posted an interview with Dave Baranec, lead programmer on Freespace 2 at Volition. The interview covers a variety of topics, including the technological differences between the Freespace 2 engine, and a FPS engine like Unreal or Quake's.

Intel exiting stand-alone graphics chip business is a Reuters story that confirms the CNET News.com report from the other day (story) that Intel is leaving the graphics chip market after only one year. Thanks The Adrenaline Vault.

A new version of hlds_l_admin, the Half-Life Dedicated Server Admin program for Linux has been released (thanks Planet Half-Life). This version adds compatibility for the new 3.0.1.4 server.

Ridah made an update to the Kingpin Beta Testing page announcing that: "The Kingpin patch beta testing program is now complete. Thank you to all who participated, and especially to those who helped out with bug reports, and suggestions. Look for the official v1.20 patch to surface soon, on the official Kingpin Page."

Some strategic patching to be done: Rex from AVault sends word that the The Adrenaline Vault Downloads Patch page has an 11-some MB patch to update Dungeon Keeper 2 to version 1.5 (with a link to the original download location, as well). It is warned that the update will affect your saved games, so read up on the patch before installing it. Also, a version 3.22 Braveheart Patch has been released by Eidos, also for the North American version of the game ("if the box the game came in has a flap, you have the correct version"). This patch updates your game from version 3.09. Again a caveat about saved games -- your saved games will no longer work after applying the patch.

The Sincest For SiN page has the public release of the source-code for their Sin front-end/launcher with the terribly politically incorrect name.

Pandemic Studios has posted a new screenshot "of an ISDF Assault Tank tak(ing) one in the face." Thanks The Battlezone Nav Beacon. BattleZone2, currently in development, is the sequel to the critically acclaimed BattleZone, offering a blend of first-person action, and real-time strategy.

The DiabloII.Net Network sends word that Blizzard has released a pair of photos of prototypes of the just-announced Diablo II action figures (I love stuff like this--I still desperately need one of those Quake II Tanks). Here's a shot of the Barbarian, and here's a shot of the mummy.

Why Being a Computer Game Developer Sucks is a Slashdot feature that's generating a great deal of interest (at least judging from all the mail about it we're receiving--thanks Ant for being the first). The piece is written by Talin, a veteran game developer with over 15 years experience in the industry to back his premise.

N64Planet Interviews Joe Viviano of Raster Productions talking about their work on the Nintendo 64 port of Quake II, which also benefited from the contribution of the rogues over at Rogue.

Volition's FreeSpace2 site has two more new images of ships from their upcoming space-opera sequel, FreeSpace 2. Thanks Voodoo Extreme. The shots are presented as traditional screenshots, and alternatively as "an actual 3D model embedded within the web page using MetaStream technology," which requires the installation of the MetaStream plugin.

The mainstream gaming violence article of the week is Violence Is Where the Action Is from today's LA Times (thanks devilbunny). The piece talks about games like Grand Theft Auto, and Postal, and finishes off discussing Xatrix' Kingpin: Life of Crime. Also sent along by devilbunny is Linux gamesters, a Boston Globe article talking of the spread of penguin-powered PCs in the gaming world.

Alienware Technology is making version 1.05 of First Contact available, which is the first public beta of their new program to offer real-time voice communication to players of multiplayer games over the Internet. Games must be played on their servers, info on where to play will be sent to applicants along with a password to activate the program. Currently their test servers are all running TeamFortress Classic. This version has a 15-day evaluation period.

GASource has posted three new screenshots, showing off the outdoor levels in Venom. They're also reporting that GSC will release a Venom demo on September 1st that will feature two playable levels.

Westwood has posted a "mini-movie" from Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, showing off gameplay footage from this soon-to-be-in-stores game. It's also available on OnlineCombat.com, if Westwood's site's a little slow.

• Adventure Gamer has posted a preview of The Longest Journey, which seems to have left quite an impression on the author.
• RPGXtreme has posted a brief preview of Septerra Core, a Japanese style RPG that Monolith is set to publish.
• GameLinks has posted a preview of Soldier of Fortune.
• Gamer's Central has previewed Wizardry 8, complete with eight new screenshots.

Gamer's Central has posted an interview with Ken Levine, the president of Irrational Games (the folk behind System Shock 2). Topics discussed include the possibility of a Shock 3 ("I wouldn't be surprised if System Shock 3 eventually happened"), his start in the industry, and other games he's playing.

id Software's Paul Steed sent along another version of the Quake III Arena Visor/Slash image he sent along the other day (story), saying "That image I gave you was screwed up for some reason. It may not be worth your time, but here's a better one..." Not sure what was wrong, but since he went to the trouble to send it along (and you know how artists are about their work), I certainly thought it was worth passing along. Here's a copy of the whopping 4 MB bitmap on Blue's News FTP (902 KB zipped), and here are the original description, the thumbnail (linked to a leaner, but still spiffy, jpeg), and the new caption Paul Sent along yesterday:

This is something I did for an advertisement idea to be in magazines sometime in the next few months or so. With the exception of a few minor Photoshop enhancements, the characters are rendered from their in-game model selves featuring cool Kenneth Scott skinnery. Makes a great windows background...

Visor: "Baby, why do we fight so?
Slash: "Oh shut up and kiss me you fool."

Stu from Surreal just sent an email to say the problem pointed out in the story below this one has been fixed (I think his saying the problem would be fixed "shortly" has proven accurate). Here's the deal:

The Mplayer master server has now been fixed. All available servers should now be showing up on everyone's Join Game server list within Drakan! Note that people using GameSpy (which queried the GameSpy master server) did not experience the problem.

Drakan.Net is reporting on a post to their forum by Stu from Surreal about a problem with the in-game server browser in the newly-released Drakan: Order of the Flame (thanks Redwood). Here's the poop on the problem (BTW, they point out the fix he describes will be on the Master Server, not as a client patch):

There is a problem with the master server where when using the in-game Drakan browser, some servers do not show up on the list as valid. The problem should be fixed shortly. In the mean time, you can connect to the following servers by adding them to the list manually (using Add Server):

38.169.194.101
209.20.146.100
209.20.146.105

The Adrenaline Vault Previews FreeSpace 2 giving a thorough look ahead at the sequel to Descent FreeSpace: The Great War (the Descent part of the name has been dropped). The piece describes the new sequel as having more plot than the original, and shows off the improved graphics with eight screenshots.

3D-Unlimited interviews Jarrod Showers talking to the Raven Software animator about his work on Raven's upcoming game of mercenariness, Soldier of Fortune.

Sharky Extreme's New Blade Shots presents some new artwork and screenshots and Rebel Act Studios' upcoming 3D first-person shooter/RPG.

Tonight's Lilith & Eve is going to be a star-studded (and Steed-studded) tribute to QuakeCon '99. Here's the deal:

Friday night at 7:00pm EST, the ladies of Lilith & Eve (http://www.allgames.com/lilitheve) hit QuakeCon in force, and tonight and next week we have the footage to show from it!! Among other things, Paul Steed from id Software talks to the ladies all about his models in Q3:A, the folks from the OGL speak with Vangie about their ladders, you'll see some new gameplay and interviews about both Soldier of Fortune and Star Trek: Voyager from Raven Software (and you just gotta see the Borg!), interviews with lots of people from the gaming community (Redwood, Bill "Crash" McClendon, and PMS-BostonChick, to name a few), and lots lots more!!

Watch the show live using your Real Player (http://www.real.com ), and join us for chat by joining server chat.pseudo.com, channel #allgames.com!

• Sharky Extreme's Matrox Millennium G400 In Depth looks at Trilinear Filtering and Mip-mapping and their effect on visual quality and performance.
• Overclocking The Intel Pentium 3 To 800Mhz By The Tech Zone. Zoom! You smell something burning?

The King of the Server page has a new version 3.1 of the KOTS deathmatch mod for Quake II. KOTS saves your stats, inventory, ammo, armor, weapons, and health across games, maps, and servers. The new release offers several new features, including map voting.

The Sincest For SiN page has a new version 0.5 of the Weapons of Fury mod for Sin. the new release adds a variable that lets the server admin choose the weapon order. There's also now a command to the clients go back a weapon (in case they run out of ammo), and the weapons no longer spawn when the map starts.

• Killjoys has posted five new screenshots from the upcoming 3D RTS, Wartorn...
• The Habitat interviews the Mod Makers talking with several mod creators like Riever (Redemption bot and Sinmod), Gooseman (Action Half-Life, Action Quake 2 and Counterstrike for Half-Life), Tren (Tren's Blood 2 mods like FXEnhacer) and Crescent Moon Software who made the "Shadows of Na Pali" mod for Unreal...
• The Adrenaline Vault Downloads Patch has a new patch for TRI's new flight dealie, Fly!...
• In Honor of Ripley Founder of the Violent Femmes, May '98, Tragically lost August 11, 1999. Our condolences to her friends and family...

In a startling turn of events, I believe I may have stumbled across the answer to the question of why the news page here reloads a second time for some readers. I was noodling around with the settings in Internet Explorer 5, and I noticed a setting under the view menu called "encoding." When I changed this from Western-yada to auto-select, the news page seemed to reload, so if you are experiencing difficulties, this may help (though it may not, because a similar test by loony didn't seem to duplicate those results). If this fixes the problem for you, I'd appreciate a quick note to that effect if you have the time (or if it didn't help you for that matter). I also received a couple of note from lynx readers pointing out the news page was generating an error... turns out there was a bad link in the no-frames version of the site (which shows these were users of an older version of lynx), it's fixed now (sorry about that).

With all the new stuff going on here, the Messageboards, and all, it slipped my mind that loony is heading off on Saturday to party down with the Quake III Tour Bus crew, so I'm going to try to relax a bit today before I'm abandoned (all these changes and new features are so exciting I've been working non-stop lately, so I should pace myself better). By the way, in light of the stories that were mentioned here recently regarding ethics and journalism, we have made my long-standing policy of disclosing when accepting travel or accommodations from outside companies an official thing, so when we travel somewhere (like QuakeCon, for instance), unless it's stated otherwise, you can assume that expenses came out of the meager Blue's News travel budget. In the case of loony's trip, id Software is not paying for loony to fly down to Texas to join the bus tour, though he apparently will be able to share a hotel room with one of the folks from Activision, and Anna has promised to feed him if he's good. id invited us to join the tour for a bit, and it seemed like it would be fun enough to be worth flying down for (I just can't figure out how I lost the coin toss, when loony told me it came up heads I dropped the telephone in shock).

Link of the Day: New Jolt Flavors (thanks Alex Bischoff). Great decision, since Jolt is a great idea, but that taste is a crime against cola (before you Jolt fans flame me, remember you aren't drinking it for the taste).